Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
Area for development
Role of Board / Forum
members at Board
meetings
ACTION POINTS
1.1 Annual action plan containing strategic
objectives to be developed
The Board needs to have a long term strategic plan for
the next four years but it needs a Year Plan for each of
those years (based on a financial year) with all key
events clearly set out.
The implementation of this action plan should
commence in April 2014 and should include Board
meetings, Working Group meetings, events and
deadlines for project submissions (linked to the work of
the priority groups).
The choice of 2014/15 priorities needs to be informed
by accurate data (statistical profile) which is supplied
regularly and appropriate to each priority theme. This
data should be explored by each priority group to inform
their own action planning and project development.
Local residents should be invited to inform the work of
the priority groups on a more frequent basis, perhaps
through localised community surgeries, so their issues
can be captured and represented geographically. This
feedback would add weight to the data already received
from the six monthly Forum meetings.
There should be strong links between the action plan
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Actions and Lead Officers
Use terms of reference for each priority
group, available statistical data, schedules
of meetings/events and targeted project
areas to develop a strategic action plan.
The DVP Team and DVP Board should lead
on the development of the action plan in
collaboration with Forum and Working
Groups.
Timescales
On-going
development
between October
2013 and April
2014.
Implementation
from April 2014.
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
and the ‘Altogether’ themes of the County Durham
Partnership.
1.2 Timetable for Board meetings to be developed
aligned to financial year
Schedule of 2014 meetings/events to be
presented to Board for consideration.
A forward schedule of Board meetings and events
enables the Board to plan its work, review and accept
project proposals in a timely manner and provides
opportunities for time limited information/consultations
to be promoted.
The DVP Team to lead on the development
and presentation of the proposed meeting
schedule.
1.3 Appropriateness of Board meeting
presentations to be reviewed.
Vice Chairs to make decision regarding
which presentations should feature on
forthcoming agendas and which should be
deferred to Working Groups and/or one-off
community meetings.
Presentations at Board meetings can take up a lot of
time and their relevance to the work of, or the priorities,
of the Partnership has not always been clear.
Presentations are not always well presented and often
slides are difficult to read.
The Board needs to have more input into the choice of
presentations and there needs to be fewer
presentations at future meetings to allow more time for
the discussion of key core items of business (progress
against priorities and associated project updates).
Some presentations may benefit from being grouped
together and treated separately as a community event
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Completed.
Two events will
be presented to
the Board for
consideration at
the January 2014
meeting.
On-going
Please note that
some
presentations
requested on
behalf of DCC
are mandatory
i.e. MTFP and are
delivered for
consistency and
equity purposes
across all 14
AAPs.
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
like the recent successful welfare reform.
A decision should be taken as to whether presentations
are either Board / Working Group or one-off meeting
appropriate. This could also result in a review of the
current agenda format.
1.4 Focus of presentations, if any, should be project
feedback from deliverers.
See comments detailed above in relation to
appropriateness of presentations and desire for greater
time to be spent on core business items linked to
priorities and projects.
Project deliverers to be contacted to present
at a future Board meeting – this should be
limited to one or two priority themes per
meeting so a deeper understanding of every
priority can be achieved throughout the
course of the year.
January 2014
and on-going for
each Board
meeting
thereafter
There is an acknowledgement that the Board does not
receive enough feedback from project deliverers.
Attendance at a Board meeting to provide an update /
evaluation in relation to funded current / delivered
projects should be pre-requisite of any funding offer.
1.5 Clarity to be agreed regarding use of Area
Budget – open application versus strategic
alignment against profile work.
The Board to decide when project
applications linked to the priority themes
can be invited (linked to expenditure from
Area Budget and the work of the priority
It is acknowledged that the priority groups have over the groups and their specific action plans).
past four years lost their strategic focus and have
become open funding pots. Clarity needs to be given to
the groups as to what is expected in relation to their
funding proposals and how these are developed
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Board sub-group
to be established
in February 2014
to review criteria
linked to ‘It’s Up
2 U’ and priority
themed project
proposals.
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
(aligned to themed action plans based on statistical
data).
1.6 Opportunity for groups to apply for small grants
should be available through It’s Up 2 U.
The Board have expressed a wish to make small grants
available to local community and voluntary
organisations outside of the Area Budget process.
Overview of Priority
Working Groups and
their future
development
(membership, project
proposals, action
plans, data, terms of
reference, champions)
2.1 Annual timetable of Working Group meetings to
be agreed in advance to ensure consistency and to
determine commitment of Group members.
To ensure consistency of attendance and to enable
residents to fully participate in the project development
process, each priority group should have its own
forward plan of meetings which can be agreed and
diarised.
Project proposals should be put forward at an agreed
time in the year (see action point above) with a cut-off
date. The most appropriate time would be at the start
of the financial year when priority themed action plans
have been developed and agreed. This would provide
greater clarity regarding the types of projects the groups
would be willing to support to achieve their aims.
It will be necessary to agree meeting dates after each
meeting with an agenda circulated in advance to
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The Board to discuss how to progress the
It’s Up 2 U small grant funding scheme
based on the two previous schemes and
feedback from Mid Durham village pilot.
Timetable of meetings for each Priority
Working Group to be developed for the
remainder of 2013 up to April 2014 and
thereafter for the next financial year
2014/15.
On-going
implementation
from April 2014
to
September 2014.
Part completed
up until March
2014 – awaiting
2014/15 Priority
Setting outcome
further to
January 2014
Board meeting
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
include the monitoring and evaluation of current and/or
previously supported projects and data review where
appropriate.
2.2 Action Plans to be developed for all Working
Development of action plans to begin from
Groups once priorities are agreed and data received the next meeting of each priority group.
from profile and other sources.
All priority groups need to develop a yearly action plan
to take forward their work, without this strategic focus
project proposals can be raised at any time with no
clarity as to how the project links to the wider objectives
of the group and the Board.
The current terms of reference for each group also
need to be tighter and linked to targets for each priority
theme. Each priority group needs to turn these targets
into tangible outputs to show the difference that has
been made.
2.3 Champions to be sought for all Working Groups
– un-decided as to whether this should be from the
Board itself or the Group in general?
At present the communication gap between the Board
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Dates set for
each Working
Group to
commence
action plan
development.
Which groups
will be
determined
further to
outcome of
decision above.
Board sub-group
to be established
in February 2014
to provide steer
re: action plan
and TOR
development.
Board to determine which members will
champion which priority group and whether
this role should be supported by a member
of the wider group.
Information
regarding new
2014/15 AAP
priorities to be
circulated to
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
Forum and wider
community via
current
communication
channels to
refresh
membership
(March – April
2014). Chair of
Working Groups
to be sought at
first meetings in
April 2014.
and the priority groups is too wide. If the Board is to
promote and support the work of the Partnership then it
needs to know more about what each of the priority
groups are doing and why.
Regular involvement by the Board in each group should
involve one or more Board member(s) ‘championing’
the priority through the chairing of these groups (with
officer support).
2.4 Number of priorities to be reviewed in terms of
manageability, capacity of representatives to attend
all groups, overlap of issues/projects which could
present opportunity to merge certain groups.
The November Forum event will provide an
opportunity for local residents to vote for
their preferred priorities for the Board to
consider in 2014/15.
The Board proposed that the number of priority groups
should be reduced given that the Partnership has
tackled the maximum amount of priorities over the
previous four years.
It is recommendation that at the first Board
meeting after the above exercise, the Board
consider the new approach.
There is also an acknowledgement that some of the
priorities overlap and that this can cause confusion
when project proposals come forward.
It is envisaged that this approach, rather than diluting
efforts, would in fact unify and strengthen several
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Board to make
decision
regarding
priorities for
2014/15 at next
Board meeting January 2014.
Derwent Valley Partnership Action Plan 2014
priority areas and avoid repetition.
.
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